A hit Chinese TV drama that tells the story of three families who sent their young teens to study abroad has surfaced middle-class doubts about their future in the country.

“A Love for Separation,” based on a novel by Lu Yingong, started screening last week and grabbed the public’s attention despite competing with the Olympic games for viewers. Users on the cultural website douban.com gave the show an average score of 8.2 out of 10.

Some critics say it reflects a widespread anxiety among China’s middle class: they constantly feel insecure and believe that the only way for their children to get a better life is to leave China and pursue their dreams elsewhere. The story line has triggered discussions about the country’s test-based education system and about “tiger” mothers, fathers and teachers. Many scenes of domestic conflict in the show center around the children’s test scores.

In one clip circulating on social media, Fang Duoduo, a ninth-grader, yells at her father, “You want respect from me? You only treat me like an exam machine!”

Students walk to class at Yangzhou University in Jiangsu province, China.
Photo:
Michael Ryan for The Wall Street Journal

Stress about the highly-competitive gaokao, or college entrance exam, is one of the reasons why some parents would rather send their kids abroad to study.

In the show, Duoduo’s mother tells her, “If you can’t make sure you in the top 100 right now, you won’t enter a key senior high school. If you can’t enter a key senior high, you won’t enter a key university. If you can’t enter a key university, you whole life is done.”

In China, college admission hinges on the gaokao, which can only be taken once annually. Competition is so intense that parents would do anything to make sure their kids’ sail through the exam without interruptions. Last summer, a Sichuan family made headlines when it emerged that a mother hid from her daughter news of her father’s death for nearly two weeks until she’d finished taking the test, for fear it would influence her results.

The show reflects a “collective anxiety” among the middle class, the writer Huang Tongtong said in an article on her public WeChat account.

“Do you sometimes feel like everything you own is so fragile? Is it merely a fluke that you have the kind of life you live? Do you have the confidence that your children can live a good life? These are the questions that each one of us has to face,” Ms. Huang wrote.

In a survey of 458 Chinese millionaires by China Citic Bank and Hurun Report, 30% of them said they plan to send their children to attend senior high schools overseas, while 14% of them said their children should leave at a younger age, for junior high school.

“The show makes me so sad. I used to argue with my parents all because of my scores. Study is the most important issue in my family. Only study study hard, there was never love and care,” said one user on the Twitter-like Weibo platform in China.

“A love for Separation” is a highly stylish drama and like most
drama in China, it shows what the audiences would like to watch for its rating system.
The most important anxiety for the middle class is the instability of the political
system other than that of economic insecurity. Applying and going to
the college in the western countries serve an additional purpose of providing
an anchor for their parents’ immigration should the capriciousness of the
one party political system collapse.

The elite universities in
China only accept a limited number of top students through the Gaokao system
because the tuition is subsidized by the government. Most of the
students from the upper middle class are not qualified for these institutions
and it is relatively easy for the unqualified candidates in China to be
accepted in the commercialized US institutions as long as one can afford to pay
the tuition.

this topic reflects its contents poorly. specifically, content is about rigid drilling/testing, and limited college education=the complaints of the chinese students and their parents. why? availability of higher college education needs 1 crucial thing, just like health care for public=MONEY. in USA, kids and parents have no anxiety, one can do poorly in a low pressured high school with not much homework & no cut throat entrance screening exam ( not needed as there is no limited supply of colleges). worst come to worst, go to city college where 80%students won't get transitioned to 4 yrs college, or go to unheard of colleges in arizona state or Texas state instead of University of California. this china college issue has nothing to do with="middle-class doubts about their future in the country". this college problem exists in all less rich countries with limited college seats.US college with its better & easier to switch curriculum & easier admission has always been an attraction.